Miss the Misery
by DySyncZ
Summary: RWBY is making big, so big that they can tour with the biggest band in the world, CRME. But why would CRME allow an up and coming band on their tour? Blake goes to seek answers, but perhaps finds something more. RWBY Rock, Sephora.


Miss the Misery

 **This fic is aptly named after the song that inspired it, Miss the Misery by Halestorm. This'll be a RWBY Rock fic, only happening because of a meddling Lex (miss-nerdgasmz).**

A blur. That was all she could see while she struggled to open her eyes partially. She still didn't feel fully awake, nor fully cognitive of what was going on.

Stumbling up and out of the bed, she was immediately welcomed by a light air flow going across her body, signaling to her her lack of clothing. She swept her eyes over the place, finding torn clothing strewn across the floor and a hoodie draped across the night stand closest to her.

The hoodie was simple. Primarily black, in the center chest was a gray gem silhouette. The gem had four letters going across it, cut off by the zipper in the middle, each letter with it's own color.

 _RWBY_

The R was red, the W white, the B black and the Y yellow. She smiled at this sight, knowing what would greet her if she flipped it over. A single name had been put into the back of the hoodie with the outline of fake black gems.

 _Blake Belladonna._

Blake didn't even feel the need to turn it over to see her name, she picked it up and put it on. Not zipping it up and beginning to regain all of her senses, Blake looked at the room again.

It was a decently sized room, big enough to be extremely comfortable in for a few people. The way it was arranged made it apparent that this was just a place to stay in for a temporary period of time. Blake's eyes brought her back towards the bed and that's when she gets sight of something that immediately puts her fully back into her senses.

A single person was strewn across the bed. Blake could really only catch sight of his back, arms and orange hair, but it was more than enough to remind her of who this was. With one finger, Blake traced out his name in the air.

 _Roman Torchwick._

* * *

RWBY and Blake had a long history together, one that began a few years back when her friends approached her about starting a band with them. Blake had played a lot of bass throughout her life and assumed that this would just be a small thing to pass the time.

That was when they held their first meeting and it became apparent how serious things would be. Within the group, they had arranged for her oldest friend, the one who initially approached Blake, Yang Xiao Long to be on guitar, her sister Ruby Rose on the drums and Ruby's friend, Weiss Schnee as the vocals who occasionally picks up an instrument to contribute to the band. All of them were already working away on something when Blake got there, immediately demanding Blake to get to work. Blake still remembered pulling out her bass guitar and Yang nudging her,

"Welcome to RWBY."

They played primarily small gigs for a year before gaining enough traction to get some decently sized gigs. Then one day, they released a song called _This Will be the Day_. It became a smash hit, climbing charts faster then any other.

This got the band noticed by studios, producers, people who wanted to sign them. All four of them jumped at the opportunity to get a proper contract, signing on with Beacon Records instantly. The best way to describe it was a flurry of success, but they didn't fade after that. A year after signing with Beacon records, the #1 band in the world, CRME, asked them to open for them in their upcoming tour.

Almost a full year later, CRME began their tour with RWBY as their opening act, which gave Blake and the rest of RWBY plenty of time to spend with CRME planning their shows.

CRME's setup was similar to RWBY's. They had their lead singer and head of band, Cinder Fall, then was there bass guitar, Roman Torchwick. Their drummer was Mercury Black and their final guitarist was Emerald Sustrai. This let all of them go to their immediate counterparts, asking a few questions every time before Cinder would give them all explicit instructions. They were to open with their newest single, _Time to Say Goodbye_ , before CRME would join them for a collaboration on _This Will be the Day_. Cinder made it clear that she expected nothing more and nothing less.

The two sides practiced as many times as they could before each performance, spending more and more time with each other. The first thing that Blake noticed about them was how condescending towards RWBY they were. Nobody else believed her, but Blake watched over CRME. They watched RWBY like a hawk, which made sense since this was CRME's tour and not RWBY's.

But it was everything that happened from afar. Most times she'd watch the members trade off whispering something to someone else and chuckling, always in RWBY's direction. During the collaboration, most of the pieces were given to CRME. Even just being told their arrangements, CRME was always staying in far nicer places then RWBY was. But since nobody on RWBY would listen to what she was saying, Blake kept quiet and waited for them to arrive at their first city.

CRME had set it up so that they'd have a few days of being in the city before the actual concert. RWBY and CRME were both at separate places and from what Blake could tell from their chatter, CRME all had their own private rented out rooms, something that was also failed to keep secret to the media. But Blake formulated her plan to hunt for the truth.

On their second night of being in the city, RWBY were all in their room drinking alcohol provided by CRME. Blake refrained from drinking as much as everyone else was, trying to keep herself limited to a few swigs. Eventually Blake got up, picking up a full bottle of alcohol, stashing it in her official RWBY hoodie and walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" Yang asked, the only one who wasn't completely smashed at that point.

"Out," Blake said before leaving and closing the door behind her. She had a single destination in her mind, Blake's interaction with CRME was very limited, but there was one person who she spoke to the most and seemed like her best bet.

 _Roman Torchwick_

Blake walked through the town towards the address that she had mapped out, knowing full and well that Roman would be in there. He seemed like the easiest target, the one most ready to blab at any given moment. But she still wasn't sure with her plan.

Her mind had already mapped out 1,000 ways it could all go wrong, what it would mean for not only her career but also the careers of her friends in RWBY.

She stopped at one point and wiped her face with her hand. Taking in a deep breath, Blake pulled out the bottle of alcohol and started to drink from it. After drinking half the bottle, Blake resumed walking. She didn't feel the liquor hit her quite yet, but she knew it would. She just hoped it'd give her the confidence boost that she'd need.

* * *

It didn't take Blake too much longer to arrive at the small place that Roman was staying at, but it did take long enough for her to both finish the bottle and for the liquor to begin to work it's magic.

Blake knocked very loudly, hearing a slightly slurred male voice called back.

"Who is it?"

"Blake Belladonna," she yelled back, her voice holding an equal amount of slurring. "Open up." Blake waited for a few moments before hearing him call to her that it was open. Blake opened up the door and barged in.

"Hello Blake," Roman said instantly. She looked over at him, seeing him seated with his legs crossed at a table. He was wearing a pair of black pants and a short-sleeved shirt. His orange only just swept in front of his right eye, leaving only his left eye visible to show off his signature look of very liberally applied eyeliner. Blake noticed that he too had a bottle of alcohol not too far from his grasp, meaning that part of what she had hoped for was present.

"Why ask us on?" Blake demanded, trying to hold her slur to a minimum. "Why have us open?"

"Why not?" Roman asked, not at all making any efforts to conceal his own slur. He took another swig of alcohol and showed a cocky grin. Blake growled and walked forward towards him, taking off her hoodie and throwing it to the side as she walked.

"Why have an up and coming band open for an established and old band?" Blake demanded. Roman put down his alcohol and stood up, showing off his height advantage on Blake.

"It's because your band is going to crash and burn," Roman said, his arrogance shining through his slur. Blake could feel herself heating up, feeling anger run through her body. "And even if you don't, you'll never even touch us. You just aren't nearly as good, you and your three little friends will fail before we even release two more albums." Blake couldn't talk but she was starting to shake. She didn't know what to do or feel, the alcohol was clouding her mind so heavily now that trying to not fight him was almost impossible.

"What do they call you?" Roman continued. "The Black Cat, right? Something about your tattoos? Well," Roman put his right hand on Blake's shoulder and looked her right in the eyes. "You're gonna be looking for a shelter soon enough little kitty. You're lucky we're even giving you a taste of what being a _real_ band is about."

Blake snapped.

She swung around and brought her nails across Roman's left arm, causing him to immediately call out and stumble back in surprise. He looked down and saw the angry red marks that Blake had left and snarled.

"Kitty's got claws," he mumbled. Blake stood across from him, breathing heavily and focusing in on him. Her vision became filtered through a red mist, her eyes set clearly on her target.

Blake moved forward again and swung around with her other arm. Roman grabbed it and shoved Blake to the ground. She got back up as quickly as she could and lunged at him. She succeeded in tackling him to the ground. They were both sprawled across the ground, sloppily trying to throw blows at each other. Eventually Roman managed to push Blake off of him and he got to his feet.

Blake stood up and tried to lunge again, but this time Roman moved out of the way and grabbed her hair as it flew by. Blake yelped and stopped mid-lunge, turning to face Roman. He pushed her against the nearest wall and grabbed her right arm as well.

"Show respect to those superior to you," he spat. Blake growled and tried to struggle against him. But her mind was foggy and her movement was sloppy. She couldn't hold her liquor better than Roman, he was able to control himself a lot better then she was.

"Y'know Kitty Cat," Roman said, breathing his alcohol stenched breath all over Blake. "I can see the eye appeal for you. Maybe you'll sell more and avoid burning out for longer." He laughed, finding his joke amusing. Blake still couldn't move against him, but now she felt hot for another reason.

Somewhere in her mind, the alcohol made connections for her. She remembered that this used to be her idol. CRME had been on top for so long that everyone in RWBY looked up to them, everyone loved them. Blake looked up to Roman because of how good he was on bass, he was the person that she, for a brief period of time, tried to pattern herself after. Now here she was, pinned against a wall with him staring her down, somewhere in her muddled mind she made a connection and decided that something was a good idea.

She grabbed onto his collar with her left hand and pulled Roman into her. Before Roman could process what was happening, Blake kissed him. Roman didn't waste a moment in kissing her back, still not letting go of her hair or arm.

Roman broke the kiss, and looked Blake in the face. She had begun to smile, her eyes burning with equal amounts of anger and lust.

"Well, well, well," Roman said. "Looks like we've got a mutual desire here." He laughed and leaned in closer to her. "I promise to make this fun."

* * *

Blake only remembered waking up the next morning after that. Her head was pounding and almost every part of her body was sore. She saw Roman next to her, still passed out. Blake noticed that she was completely naked and she traced over her tattoos. There were angry marks completely covering her entire body, nothing serious but enough to be noticeable. Most of them interrupted her tattoos.

She got out of bed and looked for her clothes, only to see that her shirt and underwear were all torn to pieces. She found her jeans in the middle of the floor, intact fortunately enough, and her hoodie still on the ground near the table. Blake put both of them on and ran out of the place before Roman could wake up.

She felt ashamed that she had caved like she had. While she couldn't specifically remember anything, the buildup and the way that she felt was more than enough to fill in the blanks. She caved to feelings, older feelings of want and as a result, her band was probably noticing her absence. Hopefully they wouldn't have any questions for her and she could just change into her clothes, but she doubted it. At the bare minimum, Weiss would probably yell at her for being out all night.

But when Blake arrived back at where they were staying, everyone was still passed out. Counting her lucky stars, Blake put on new clothes and prepared for rehearsal.

* * *

That day's rehearsal started off with her avoiding Roman as much as possible. Even during the moments that she would normally be close to him or have to interact with him, she ducked out of his way. But eventually, everybody partnered up to talk over what they were doing, leaving Blake next to Roman.

Blake practiced every note to the songs, staying silent next to Roman. Finally he walked over to her and looked at her strings.

"Are you sure those are in tune?" He asked. Blake looked back at him and nodded.

"I'm pretty sure," she said.

"Did you check?" Blake bit her lip and checked to make sure that they were in tune. "I'd ask for you to let me see if it's tuned but I think we all know you're not handing that over."

"What do you want?" Blake finally asked, keeping her voice only just audible for Roman. His face turned into a wicked grin.

"I want those strings to be in tune," he said, a chuckle escaping his mouth. "But really, I wanted to say that you had a good showing last night." Blake felt her hairs stand up and she strummed softly on her guitar.

"I don't remember," Blake said through clenched teeth.

"Can't hold your liquor?" Roman asked. "Hm, well I suppose in order to avoid any future legal unpleasantries, you started it. Both things."

"I remember that much." Roman nodded.

"Good. Saves us both trips to the court."

"What do you want?" Blake repeated. She was starting to grow impatient, she hated dancing around the issue.

"I wanted to know if you wanted to continue our little escapade," Roman said, his smile shining through his words. "Not tonight, of course our opening night is tomorrow. But I am certainly all for it if you are. Of course, if you aren't then I'll leave you be. No reason to resume our little argument without the reward at the end."

"You insulted my band," Blake growled.

"Can you blame me?" Roman asked. "There have been so many one hit wonders come and go, plenty of them opened up for us since you only need one hit to open for a band. Besides, you still won't touch us even if you find a spot in this industry." Blake was silent, adjusting the tune on her strings in silence.

"Listen Kitty Cat-" Roman started.

"Stop calling me that," Blake shot back.

"Pass. Now, you don't have to accept, like I said, I'll just back off. But I think I can speak for both of us when I say I'd enjoy continuing on with last night." Blake was silent for a few moments, but then the area around them started to echo with the sound of high heals. Blake immediately knew it had to be one of two people and she had a good guess as to who it was.

"We're going to run through the whole show," Cinder said. Blake turned to see her. She was making a baggy shirt, jeans and high heals look like the classiest look invented. "Roman, off stage for now."

"Of course," he said. He picked up his guitar and started to walk away, throwing one last glance at Blake. "Your decision, Kitty Cat. Think about it." Roman left the stage and Blake got into position, taking in a heavy breath and shaking her head. Temptation was a bastard and she wanted to give into it horribly.

* * *

The rest of rehearsal for that day was uneventful. RWBY did their song, CRME joined in for the second one and then they were off stage to watch CRME perform. The whole time RWBY was watching what CRME was doing, Blake was lost in thought.

Roman's offer was tempting. She didn't remember everything but she remembered enough to know that she wanted to remember it all. She wanted to feel his lips on hers again, this time she wanted to have full feeling and full memory of it. She wanted it so badly. She couldn't find a real reason to think that it was a bad idea as well, she couldn't see an obvious negative to it either. But she searched for one, Blake wanted a reason why it was a bad idea, why she should resist temptation and feelings. She wanted a reason to justify why she had completely zoned out and why she was shaking at various points.

Rehearsal was called over for the day after a while and everyone departed, RWBY going back to where they were staying while CRME all went to their separate living quarters.

Once there, Blake immediately broke off into her room while everyone else was inside the main room, talking eagerly about the big show the next night. Blake pulled out her phone and found Roman's number in it. At the start of them agreeing to be on the show, CRME had given RWBY their numbers so that if they needed anything they could contact them. Nobody had used it up to this point, but Blake now saw a reason to.

The phone rang a few times before she heard someone pick it up.

"Roman present," Roman's voice said on the other end. "What do you want?"

"It's Blake," she said.

"Blake?" Roman's voice immediately perked up in interest. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Figured you'd want an answer, yes or no."

"Generally appreciated, go on." Blake took in a deep breath and got ready.

"On the second night of the next city we're in, I'll come to your place after shaking my friends," Blake said. "We can do that for every city. We don't say a word of this to anyone."

"I think I can work with that," Roman said. Blake could see his smirk on the other end of the phone. "Anything else?"

"Keep any marks under the clothes next time," Blake said. "I saw a scratch on my neck before rehearsal and keeping my hair over it is a bitch." Roman chuckled on the other end.

"I think I can do that."

"Blake!" Yang yelled out. "You gonna come join us?"

"Yeah," Blake called back, covering up the mouthpiece for her phone in the process. "In a minute." She went back to speaking into her phone. "I've gotta go. See you tomorrow."

"See you tomorrow Kitty Cat," Roman said. The line went dead and Blake left to join her friends.

* * *

On the second city and the second day, Blake and Roman met up for the night, both sober this time. The feeling was everything that Blake had hoped for. It wasn't any softer than the first time, it was just without an actual argument to sustain it initially. Now they just showed up and went right to it, tearing, scratching, pulling, whatever they felt like doing.

This pattern of the second night continued through every city until the last one, where along with the second night Blake and Roman both agreed for the night after their last show, they'd meet up one last time.

Which led Blake to now, the morning of the day she was going to depart, wearing her hoodie and staring at Roman's sleeping form. She felt over her tattoos, tracing them to find the marks. True to his word, Roman had always kept everything concealable by clothing but Blake was under no such promise. She knew there would be marks on his neck, hands and other places he normally didn't wear things to cover. She was just happy that she wouldn't have to explain much of anything to the rest of her band.

Not feeling like searching for the replacement clothing that Blake brought, she looked for some food in the mini-fridge. Out of the corner of her ear, she heard stirring back by the bed. Blake looked up from the fridge and saw Roman stretching as he woke up. He looked over and saw Blake looking at him and he smiled at her.

"Good morning Kitty Cat," he greeted.

"Morning Ash Tray," Blake said. It was a nickname she had developed for him after seeing truly how much he smoked. Plus his orange hair just made her more inclined some kind of fire related nickname. Roman got out of bed, and looked around him.

"Excellent showing last night," Roman said. Blake raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do you mean the performance or the other business?" Blake asked.

"Both," Roman laughed. "Both were very good showings."

"I'd agree," Blake said. She went back to looking through the fridge and shook her head.

"Do you keep any food in here?" She asked.

"God no," Roman said. "Why would I do something like that?"

"That's what most people do with mini-fridges."

"Most people don't have money to eat well every night and not have to prepare it themselves." Blake shrugged and walked out of the kitchen.

"What's next for your band?" Roman asked.

"Ruby and I will finish writing the songs when we get back," Blake said. She picked up her replacement clothing and started to change into it. "We'll practice, perform and try and get our next album as much success as our single had. You?"

"No obligations to finish an album means a vacation for me," Roman said proudly as he started to get dressed as well. "Music will be done eventually, I'll let the Brain figure that one out." Blake had learned that whenever Roman discussed Cinder in reference to the band away from her he jus called her the Brain, especially in reference to writing songs. "Whenever she needs me, I'll be informed and I'll go record music or do whatever. In the meantime, I can relax, do fan meetups, signings, whatever can help line my pockets with a little bit of extra money."

"Why am I not surprised?" Blake said with a small smile.

"Because you know me. This fame thing doesn't last forever for me, might as well milk as much money out of it as I can." Blake shook her head and stood up, having finished putting on her last article of clothing.

"So what's next?" Roman asked.

"I just told you," Blake said. "I'm going to go back and-."

"For this." Blake fell silent. She hadn't thought about that. "If you'd like, I have at least a month off. I can stop by where you live and we can do this. Of course, if not then I'll enjoy my time elsewhere."

"Really?"

"Of course, I've rather enjoyed our time together and what we've done. If you say no, I don't see a point in pursuing past the no when I could be looking for fun elsewhere. Though I doubt it'd be as much fun." Blake was quiet for a few moments. She was brought back to her dilemma of a while ago, when Roman asked to continue on with their visits on the second night and she hesitated. Now was the offer for a few days of it. This time, it was a quicker decision.

"If you were ever in town I think I'd pay a visit or two," Blake said with a smile. She walked over to Roman who was smiling with her.

"Hm, only a visit or two?" He asked.

"Don't push your luck." Blake stood on her toes and kissed Roman. "But we'll see about more visits from a burnout band."

"I told you I take it back," Roman said. "You four will not burnout."

"But we still won't touch you?"

"Oh well that's a given." Blake gave Roman a gentle shove. Blake heard her phone buzz and she looked down and checked it.

 _Yo, where the hell are you? I know you've already packed and shit but Weiss is not happy about you being out._

It was from Yang. Blake impatiently typed a quick reply.

 _Morning was nice, I decided to go out and explore, I'll be back soon. Tell Princess to calm her shit._

 _Alright, just get back before she bitches our ears off. I like hearing the music we make._

Blake closed her phone and looked back at Roman.

"See you around," she said. Without another word, Blake turned and started to walk towards the exit.

"See you," Roman said.

Blake left the building and started to walk back towards where she was staying, already two things planted firmly in her mind. The first was that she couldn't wait for Roman to show up, she couldn't wait to feel his touch again and have another night with him. The second was that he had given her great inspiration for a new song on the album. One that she hoped to see above CRMEs.

 **End: Questions, comments, follows, favorites , and feedback is alw** **ays appreciated!**


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